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Friday, June 13, 2008

Strong Quake Shakes Northern Japan, at Least 2 Dead

A powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked a rural area of northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least two people, triggering landslides and reportedly knocking down a bridge. News reports said dozens of people were injured.Two nuclear power plants in the area were undergoing inspections but there were no immediate reports of damage, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. Electricity had been cut to about 29,000 households in the quake zone, he said. There was no danger of tsunami.The 8:43 a.m. quake was centered in the northern prefecture (state) of Iwate about 280 miles north of Tokyo. It was felt as far away as the capital.One of the deaths was a man who ran out of a building in fear and was hit by a passing truck, and the other confirmed death was a man who was buried in a landslide while he was fishing, Machimura said.The government said 13 people had been injured, but reports gathered from local authorities showed dozens of people had been hurt.Footage shot from media helicopters showed numerous landslides onto rural roads running along knots of mountains separated by long stretches of rice fields. The footage aired on national broadcaster NHK also showed a bridge that had collapsed.National broadcaster NHK said four people were seriously injured while riding on a bus over a bridge when the quake hit."We must assess the situation as quickly possible and do utmost in our relief activities," said Machimura.The meteorological agency issued a warning of a second quake, and a 5.6-magnitude aftershock hit the same area, but it was unclear whether the warning preceded the aftershock. Japan is experimenting with an earthquake warning system."A few items fell off the shelves, such as cosmetics and pottery tea cups," Minoru Takada, 41, manager of Seven-Eleven in Oshu, in Iwate prefecture, told The Associated Press. "There wasn't any panic."Footage from the closest large city, Sendai, showed the force of the quake shook surveillance cameras for 30 seconds. NHK interviewed an official from Miyagi prefecture, where Sendai is located, who said he saw tiles coming off the roofs of some homes."It was scary. It was difficult to stand up," said Sachiko Sugihara, a convenience store worker in Oshu in a separate interview with NHK. "The TV fell over and the refrigerator shook."Windows broke at a nursery school in the area and NHK said some teachers and children were injured, though it was unclear how seriously.http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5080185As in the days of Noah...